No. 25-6766

Eric Joshua Mapes v. United States District Court for the Western District of Texas

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2026-02-10
Status: Pending
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: arrest-warrant due-process fourteenth-amendment fourth-amendment judicial-oversight probable-cause
Latest Conference: N/A
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Police Complaint as Arrest Warrant Whether a notarized police-authored criminal complaint, executed without judicial oversight and misrepresented as a valid arrest warrant, violates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by enabling seizure absent judicial authorization.

2. Arrest Without Judicial Probable Cause Whether an arrest executed solely on a police complaint, without a judge's finding of probable cause, violates the Fourth Amendment under Gerstein v. Pugh and renders subsequent detention unconstitutional.

3. Judicial Omission After Arrest and Jurisdictional Void Whether the absence of a judicial probable cause determination following arrest—as evidenced by an unsigned order finding no probable cause as required under Texas law—violates due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, and whether Texas courts retained jurisdiction to detain or convict Petitioner absent a valid judicial finding of probable cause.

4. Indiana's Alteration of Texas Conviction Whether Indiana courts and officials may lawfully alter or reclassify Texas judicial records and statutes, fabricating a child-based conviction from an adult-only adjudication, in violation of the Full Faith and Credit Clause, the Ex Post Facto Clause, and the Double Jeopardy Clause.

5. Forensic Evidence and Duplicate Convictions Whether a conviction may stand when forensic evidence establishes that a single individual with black hair committed the crime, and Texas courts had already entered a conviction against another defendant six months earlier for the same one-person offense.

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether a notarized police-authored criminal complaint, executed without judicial oversight and misrepresented as a valid arrest warrant, violates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by enabling seizure absent judicial authorization

Docket Entries

2026-01-13
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due March 12, 2026)

Attorneys

Eric Joshua Mapes
Eric J. Mapes — Petitioner
United States District Court for the Western District of Texas
D. John SauerSolicitor General, Respondent